Venues

Red Butte Garden Weddings

A Photographer's Guide to Salt Lake City's Most Beautiful Garden Venue

📍 Salt Lake City, Utah | University of Utah Hillside

Red Butte Garden is unlike any other wedding venue in Utah. There are no mountain lodges, no ski lifts, no barns. What you get instead is 100 acres of curated botanical gardens on a hillside above Salt Lake City, with mountain views, meandering paths, hidden water features, and more beautiful backdrops than you could ever use in a single wedding day. I've photographed close to ten weddings here across multiple seasons, and it remains one of my favorite venues in the state.

If you want your wedding to feel like stepping into a garden, this is your place.

The Setting

Red Butte sits on the hillside just above the University of Utah, perched between the city below and the Wasatch foothills above. The mountain views are beautiful and present throughout the gardens, and the city backdrop makes a subtle appearance in certain spots — particularly near the main entrance — but the gardens themselves are the real story. You're surrounded by lush plantings, tall trees, sandstone paths, and water features that make the outside world feel very far away.

Even though Red Butte is a public botanical garden open to visitors, their event staff closes off all access points to your ceremony area during the event. Between the tall hedges, mature trees, and the natural layout of the garden, it feels totally private.

The Two Venue Options

Red Butte offers two distinct wedding experiences. Both are beautiful. The right one depends on your group size, your aesthetic, and what kind of feel you're after.

The Orangerie and Fragrance Garden

This is the larger of the two options and available year-round, though ceremonies in the Fragrance Garden are offered April through September.

The Fragrance Garden is where ceremonies happen, and it is so magical. This is not a manicured, formal garden. The paths are meandering and surrounded on both sides by fragrant, seasonal blooms that spill over the pathways and change throughout the year. As you walk toward the Wisteria Arbor at the far side, you're completely enveloped in flowers. The processional itself becomes part of the experience.

The Wisteria Arbor is stunning. It provides beautiful shade and a cool reprieve during summer ceremonies, and the setup is flexible — guests are typically arranged to either side of the couple rather than in traditional rows, which creates an intimate, gathered feeling that photographs wonderfully. It feels like something out of a fairy tale, and I mean that sincerely.

The light under the arbor is dappled and mixed, moving between sun and shade, which any experienced photographer will handle easily. The tradeoff is that you're in one of the most beautiful ceremony locations in the state, so it's more than worth it.

The Orangerie is the reception space, and it's a perfect complement to the garden ceremony. It's a full conservatory — floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, lush green walls, large tropical plants throughout, and an adjacent outdoor patio surrounded by seasonal plantings. The interior feels open and light-filled, and it works beautifully as a backdrop for almost any decor vision. It's a clean, striking space that lets the garden do the talking.

The Orangerie seats 150 and accommodates up to 300 for a flowing reception.

One thing to note: the Fragrance Garden and the Orangerie are not immediately adjacent. There's a short walk between them through the garden, which is a minor logistical consideration but also an opportunity — guests get to move through a beautiful botanical garden between ceremony and reception, which is never a bad thing.

The Rose House and Rose Garden

This combination feels more tucked away and cohesive. All the spaces flow naturally into each other, and the setting has a quieter, more secluded quality. Available May through September.

The Rose Garden Wedding Lawn is the ceremony space, and it's breathtaking in its own right. Couples stand under a natural arbor with a small waterfall behind them. It's a stunning backdrop, and the sound of running water adds something special to the atmosphere.

Just beside the ceremony lawn is the Rose Garden itself — a circular space enclosed by warm sandstone walls, filled with roses of every variety, color, and size, with trailing vines climbing the stone. It's one of the most exuberant and beautiful spaces in the entire garden, and it makes for incredible portraits and a wonderful experience for guests to wander through.

The Rose House is the reception venue, and it's a lovely, intimate space. Floor-to-ceiling windows open completely onto a covered patio, creating a seamless indoor-outdoor flow. It's a smaller venue — seats up to 80, accommodates up to 100 — making it better suited to more intimate weddings. But for the right group size, it's a beautiful, peaceful setting that feels removed from the rest of the world.

Portraits in the Garden

This is where Red Butte truly shines as a photography venue. When you're having your wedding here, a staff member takes you around the full 100-acre property by golf cart, which means your portrait locations are limited only by your imagination and your timeline.

Some of my favorite spots: the oak tunnel, where a canopy of old growth trees creates a cathedral-like effect overhead; the wildflower meadow; and the water garden, which has a little dock that makes for a beautiful and unexpected portrait moment. Every season brings something different — spring blooms, summer lushness, fall color — and the variety of scenes within a single property is remarkable. You could spend an entire afternoon here and never run out of beautiful places to be.

Seasons at Red Butte

Red Butte hosts weddings from approximately May through October. The Rose House and Rose Garden are closed October through April. The wisteria in the Fragrance Garden has a peak bloom window in late spring, so if that's important to you, May and early June are worth prioritizing. That said, every season here is beautiful in its own way — summer is lush and full, early fall brings cooler temperatures and changing colors, and late spring has that fresh, just-bloomed quality that's hard to match.

A Few Practical Notes

Located at 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, on the University of Utah campus
Two venue options: Orangerie/Fragrance Garden (larger, year-round) and Rose House/Rose Garden (intimate, May-September)
Catering must be provided by one of Red Butte's preferred caterers; alcohol permitted through open bar
Event staff closes garden access points during ceremonies for privacy
Golf cart access to full garden property for portraits included
Contact the private events team at 801-585-9563 or rentals@redbutte.utah.edu to schedule a tour

Who Is Red Butte For?

Red Butte is for the couple who wants the garden to be the star. Not a dramatic canyon or a ski resort — just extraordinary botanical beauty, mountain views in the distance, and a setting that feels lush and alive. The modern interior spaces are clean and versatile, but the gardens themselves are what make this venue irreplaceable.

It's also a wonderful choice for couples who love variety in their photos. With 100 acres to explore and a golf cart to get you there, you'll have more portrait options than almost any other venue in Utah.

If you want something that feels romantic, natural, and completely unlike anywhere else in Salt Lake City, Red Butte Garden is it.

Ready to Learn More?

Visit Red Butte Garden's private events page to check availability and connect with their events team.

Red Butte Garden Website

Still looking for your wedding photographer?

I'd love to hear about your day! I love working at Red Butte Gardens and know how to make the most of every season here.

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Exploring Utah wedding venues? Check out my complete Utah Garden Wedding Venue Guide for an overview of the best venues across the Wasatch.